Composer
Patrick Doyle, who brought a new-found boldness to the Harry Potter franchise in 2005 with his
Goblet of Fire score, treats director
Kenneth Branagh's big-screen adaptation of Marvel Comic’s iconic Norse superhero
Thor with appropriate gravitas.The longtime
Branagh collaborator (Henry V, Dead Again) sets the stage with “Chasing the Storm,” a tense and surging unveiling of the main theme, which sounds a bit like a cross between the
James Newton Howard and
Hanz Zimmer's Batman Begins cue and
Zimmer's “CheValiers de Sangreal” theme from the
Da Vinci Code, and like
Zimmer,
Doyle knows how to whip a circular melody into a frenzy. Elsewhere, the lovely and appropriately stoic “Sons of Odin” is awash in traditional fantasy elements, while the epic “Compound” unveils a more modern, sci-fi action approach, resulting in a score that’s wistful, heroic, and as grand as the fantastic realm of Asgard itself. ~ James Christopher Monger